The US Treasury’s FinCEN has issued an order exempting financial institutions from repeatedly verifying beneficial owners, reducing regulatory duplication under the 2016 CDD Rule.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an order granting exceptive relief to covered financial institutions from certain requirements under FinCEN’s Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions rule (the “2016 CDD Rule”).
The order excepts covered financial institutions from the requirement to identify and verify the beneficial owners of a legal entity customer each time the customer opens a new account.
This announcement was made on 13 February 2026.
“Today’s action reflects FinCEN’s commitment to modernising the Bank Secrecy Act framework while maintaining strong safeguards against illicit finance,” said FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki.
“This relief supports a more efficient, risk-based approach to customer due diligence and reduces unnecessary regulatory burden without weakening the foundational requirements that protect the US financial system.”
Under the order, a covered financial institution is required to identify and verify the beneficial owners of a legal entity customer in only the following circumstances:
- when a legal entity customer first opens an account with the institution;
- when the institution has knowledge of facts that reasonably call into question the reliability of previously obtained beneficial ownership information; and
- as otherwise required based on the institution’s risk-based procedures for ongoing customer due diligence.
Notwithstanding this exceptive relief, covered financial institutions must comply with all other applicable anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act, including the obligation to conduct ongoing monitoring to identify and report suspicious transactions and, on a risk basis, to maintain and update customer information.
